Jamyang Norbu's blog
Jamyang Norbu has taken the stories of “forgotten” Tibetans: resistance fighters, secret agents, soldiers, peasants, lamas, aristocrats, merchants, women, officials, chieftains, even street-beggars, and skillfully worked their myriad accounts into a single glorious “memory history” of the Tibetan struggle. He uses recollections from his own childhood to ease the reader into an immersive understanding of …
Continue reading “Echoes From Forgotten Mountains (synopsis)”
Illustration: Craig Stephens, SCMP. When Trump held his infamous rally on the 6th of January and urged his supporters to “march to” (read “storm”) the US Capitol Building, and further called on them to “cheer on” (read “threaten”) US lawmakers to reverse the “stolen” election, I had a strange moment that I can only describe …
Myself with an exciting new generation of Tibetan intellectuals at JNU, Delhi. Prof. Tashi Phuntsok-la sitting, front left. This rambling essay is based on a rambling talk I gave to Tibetan students at the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) in Delhi on the 1st of April 2019. I had been invited to speak at the Dawa …
Continue reading “Transcending the Confines of Traditional Male-Dominated Society in Old Tibet”
Tsering Wangyal at a March 10 rally, 1979, Chanakyapuri. Image@High Asia We got off on the wrong foot. I met Tsering Wangyal-la in 1968 when I was working at the Bureau of H.H. the Dalai Lama at Delhi. Three junior officials had come down from Dharamshala to fly to Britain for further studies. In my …
Continue reading “Introduction to 𝑨𝑵𝑶𝑻𝑯𝑬𝑹 𝑷𝑳𝑨𝑪𝑬, a novel by Tsering Wangyal aka “Editor-la””
The Death (parinirvana) of the Buddha, c.AD 20. Grey schist from ancient Gandhara. The Victoria and Albert Museum, London. At a time when many democracies are being undermined at home by corrupt politicians or threatened externally by would-be totalitarian regimes, perhaps a discourse the Buddha gave before his great passing, his mahaparinirvana, might provide an …
Continue reading “The Buddha’s Discourse on Defending Democracy”
Introduction to the 2020 (coronavirus) edition I used the example of the dragon’s teeth of Greek legend for the title of my 2004 book to convey the destructive and frightening quality of the malaise that Western leaders in their shortsighted eagerness to do business with China were introducing into their economies, national security and even …
Review of the film Sweet Requiem by Jamyang Norbu I was going to write the knockout review for Tenzing and Ritu’s new film The Sweet Requiem, but the poet Tsering Kyi from VOA beat me to it. She had seen the movie in early May at a special showing in Washington for the US Congress Human Rights …
I wrote this essay shortly after the “Nangpa-la shooting incident” and posted it on Phayul .com, Jan 7, 2007. I haven’t changed anything in the text. My facts and conclusions might be dated somewhat but seem to hold up fairly well, thirteen years later. I’ve added some stunning black & white photographs taken by my …
Making Sense of Samdhong Rinpoche’s Views on Modern Science In January this year at the 106th Indian Science Congress (inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi) the head of a South Indian university cited an old Hindu text as proof that stem cell research was discovered in India thousands of years ago. The vice chancellor of …
Recently in a video interview with Voice of Tibet, a staff member of the Dalai Lama’s Private Office, Ngaba Tsegyam-la, claimed I had misrepresented the Dalai Lama’s statements in an audience I was granted last year; that I had claimed the Dalai had said “struggle for independence” (rangzen tso-sho) and that the Middle Way policy …
Continue reading “Misrepresenting My Audience (of May 2018) with the Dalai Lama.”
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